(NEW YORK)— PEN America will honor bestselling and prize-winning novelist and essayist Ann Patchett (Bel Canto, The Dutch House) with the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award and Oscar-nominated film producer Jason Blum, founder/CEO of Blumhouse (Get Out, Black Phone 2, BlacKkKlansman), with the Business Visionary award at its 2026 annual Literary Gala on May 14.
PEN America will celebrate Patchett’s searing and complex storytelling and her dedication to championing independent bookselling and nurturing a vibrant literary community. Her bookstore, Parnassus Books, which she started in her hometown in Nashville, has evolved into a welcome refuge for readers and a beacon for writers from across the country. Patchett’s nine novels have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers and translated into more than 30 languages. She has also written four books of nonfiction and won the National Humanities Medal, the PEN Faulkner award, and England’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, among many honors.
Blum is being recognized for his daring and diverse films that have transformed horror from a niche genre into a driving force of contemporary culture, often with social issues at the core. Beginning with Paranormal Activity, a low budget horror movie released in 2007, Blum has turned Blumhouse into a horror movie powerhouse, merging last year with James Wan’s Atomic Monster (The Conjuring: Last Rites) with a combined total global box office gross nearing $10 billion. Blum’s vision and gifts are not limited to any one genre and have previously explored social issues like racism, class, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and domestic abuse. Award-winning films like Get Out, BlacKkKlansman, and Whiplash stand alongside a Tony Award-winning play, Death Becomes Her, and Emmy-winning television series The Jinx and The Normal Heart, among many others.
PEN America Interim Co-CEO Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf said: “Ann Patchett distills the essence of the human condition with humor and heart in stories that explore the depth and meaning of family, friendship and morality. At this moment, when writers are being banned, harassed, and threatened for their words, we are honored to recognize the singular and humane voice of a writer who has earned a place as both a literary luminary and a household name. Beyond her own remarkable literary contributions, Patchett has been an extraordinary champion for literary community and a mentor and promoter of emerging writers. Her own bookstore, which she opened in 2011, has evolved into a refuge for readers and writers, as community crises swirled, and fulfilled a critical need that was lost when Nashville’s only two booksellers closed.”
Summer Lopez, Interim Co-CEO, said: “As moviegoers we have all felt the exhilaration of an unnerving horror story, but until Jason Blum’s thoroughly audacious approach, we had never seen this genre electrified with such daring, diverse, and complex storytelling. His work serves as a testament to the idea that great storytelling and fearless vision can both shape and push culture forward. We are, yes, thrilled to honor Blum’s body of work.”
Festive and Star-Studded Evening
For the 16th year, PEN America’s Literary Gala will take place under the iconic 94-foot long model of a blue whale at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. The dinner brings together renowned writers, journalists, publishers, editors, humanitarians, and cultural influencers to support PEN America’s global literary and arts programming and advocacy for free expression and the freedoms to speak, read and write.
The festive and star-studded evening honors extraordinary figures in literature, the arts, journalism, publishing, and film, alongside courageous individuals who have stood up for free expression against oppressive governments.
The PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, honoring a writer imprisoned for their work, and the PEN/Benenson Courage Award, recognizing an act of courage in defending free speech, will be announced in the coming months.
Last year, the imprisoned Egyptian poet, lyricist, and pro-democracy activist Galal El-Behairy received the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award as his father and sister spoke movingly at the event about his ordeal. The Egyptian government jailed him in 2018 on unjust charges and over the years since he has become a worldwide symbol of fearless defiance against injustice and tyranny.
An Illustrious Roster of Past Honorees
Ann Patchett joins an illustrious group of past honorees including President Barack Obama and Ava DuVernay (both Voice of Influence Awardees) and Literary Service awardees Margaret Atwood, Bob Woodward, Stephen King, Patti Smith, the late Toni Morrison and Stephen Sondheim, Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Zadie Smith, Lorne Michaels and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Among past business visionary honorees are Jon Yaged (Macmillan Publishers), Almar Latour (Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal), Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Robert A. Iger, (Disney), Frank A. Bennack, Jr. (Hearst), Don Katz (Audible), and Markus Dohle (Penguin Random House).
The celebration draws 600 + supporters with many dozens of acclaimed writers seated at each table as literary hosts. Past writer-hosts include Ayad Akhtar, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Robert Caro, Ron Chernow, Jhumpa Lahiri, Min Jin Lee, Jay McInerney, Lynn Nottage, Jodi Picoult, Salman Rushdie, Gary Shteyngart, Gay Talese, and many more.
In the months ahead, PEN America will announce the gala host (past hosts have included Amber Ruffin, Colin Jost and John Oliver, among other notables) as well as award presenters.
The gala will begin with a VIP reception at 6 pm, followed by a cocktail reception at 6:30 pm, and dinner and awards at 7:30 pm. The after party and dessert will follow at 9:30 pm. For sponsorship information, please call 646-880-6116 or email: [email protected]. Individual tickets will be available in April. For more information about the gala, visit: www.pen.org/gala.
Honorees Bios
Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children’s books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women’s Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books. Harper Collins will publish her new novel, Whistler, next year.
Jason Blum, founder/CEO of Blumhouse, is a three-time Academy Award®-nominated, two-time Primetime Emmy Award-winning, and three-time Peabody Award-winning producer. Blumhouse is a film, television and gaming company regarded as the driving force in horror. Blum has produced iconic film franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Five Nights at Freddy’s The Black Phone, and The Purge, among others. Blum’s additional feature film credits include, but are not limited to: Glass, Split and The Visit from M. Night Shyamalan; Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash; Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman; and Get Out from Jordan Peele, recently named one of the Top 10 films of the 21st Century by The New York Times. Blum has been recognized by the TIME100 and Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” List. In 2019 he received Special Achievement honors from the African American Film Critics Association and was named to the Annenberg Initiative’s first-ever Inclusion List as one of the Top Inclusive Producers from 2019-2022, with three films appearing on the list of Top 100 Most Inclusive Films. In 2026, he will receive the Milestone Award from the Producers Guild of America. Jason is on the board of The Public Theater in New York, the Sundance Institute, Vassar College, the American Cinematheque, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 201-247-5057